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ok well i do all of my sharpening at home , i work as a sous chef in a 98%scratch kitchen so i cut a lot of produceand a lot of meats. i like my edge to be very sharp but not too sharp that it chips, i also dont like the edge biting the cutting board.i also cut alot of albacore tuna so my edge has got to be razor sharp to not leave saw marks.if i get a strop kit does that mean that i wont need to use my stones anymore?

depending on how bad the blade is i will start from lowest to highest in grit.but i only need to do that every 5-6 months but i will maintain on the edges on my 16000 aswell as i have a ceramic rod that i use before and after every use at work

Nico123

Post subject: Re: What strop should I get?

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 7:29 pm

Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 7:10 pmPosts: 4

sorry my double sided stone is 800/6000

Sadden

Post subject: Re: What strop should I get?

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:41 pm

Joined: Mon May 27, 2013 6:39 pmPosts: 261

Well if you have a 16k glass than the next logical step after that is the 30k glass. But if your doing everything right you should be getting some great edges off that 16k glass. I rarely go past 8k.

Have you thought about dedicating knives to certain tasks.

Going through lots of meat I would stick lower. Some kind refined toothy edge. Gonna have to experiment to see what works for you and your knives.

Wanna kill lots of veggies fast? Follow up your 16k shapton glass with a 30k shapton glass and some roo loaded with .25 CBN and your going to be giggling. Very sticky sharp.

If your treating your knives well at work then for general maintenance a strop should be fine. Say for your veggie knife some roo loaded with .25 CBN and for your meat knives some balsa loaded with 1micron boron carbide or CBN. But a strop is only going to get you so far before its time to resharpen them. Depending on use and abuse of course

My .02 , turns out in this economy they aint worth much

_________________Ken Schwartz is my crack dealer.....

BadBoy

Post subject: Re: What strop should I get?

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 12:19 am

Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:56 amPosts: 211Location: Austin, TX

So the problem here is that you are using a single knife for a large variety of applications. Meat likes a toothy knife and the tuna you mention needs a very sharp slicer (so you avoid the back-and-forth strokes that cause the "saw marks"). For the tuna you need one single stroke that cuts through the entire piece you are cutting. This is exactly why the Japanese knifes that are single bevel, short (in height), and long (in overall length) are used for sushi slicing. They are wicket sharp and long enough to make the perfect slice by drawing the knife in one direction to make the full slice.

Vegetables need something in-between . . . or you could use your "meat" knife for the veggies too. I think most folks would stop their meat knifes around 2K and strop to fine-tune the edge to their liking. For me, I would use the same knife for meat and veggies but take it to around 5K (albeit it a natural stone) and strop from there. The tuna slicer can take more refinement and polish but will be too delicate for the other workhorse applications. You can also use the tuna slicer on the meat (or veggies for that matter) but depending on the abuse, that may not be a good plan.

Then again I am a home cook and could be completely off base, but it seems to me that the delicate cuts you need for the tuna require a different tool than the not-so-delicate slices required for the other applications. No matter the applications, 16K is more that you need . . . if the edge is still not there, then strop on leather with a .5 or .25 micron compound (your 16K is already around 1 micron).

As someone that sharpens professionally for professional cooks I can see no point in using a 16k or 30k stone when the next closest stone is a 2k SS or 6k king.

Truthfully, getting yourself a few more glass stones and ditching everything else would probably be your best option. The 500, 1k, and 4k would fill in the gaps nicely and you could use the 16k like a strop.

For cutting fish you don't need a 16k edge you just need proper refinement of a edge and skipping through a bunch of mix-matched stones is not giving you that. I finish yanagi's at 5-8k every day and that's waaaaay sharper than any factory yanagi. I use the Naniwa 2k green brick for everything else and I would bet money on that edge being sharper than you need for 99% of cutting needs in a kitchen... Including fish.

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